Talking Drupal

In Episode 549, Randy Fay and Stas Zhuk join us to discuss what DDEV is, recent improvements, and where it's headed. Module of the week is the DDEV Drupal Contrib add-on. Randy and Stas discuss priorities like reliability, consistent UX, add-ons discoverability, and new features including revamped ddev share with Cloudflare and rootless Podman support. They also cover coder.ddev.com, a cloud-based DDEV environment built on coder.com for easier onboarding and contribution, plus sustainability, community support, and challenges such as AI-driven PR volume and Stas's development constraints in Ukraine.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/549
Topics
Module of the Week - DDEV Drupal Contrib
DDev Drupal Contri Overview
Contrib Workflow Q&A
Drush in Core Debate
Add-on Registry and Contact
Drupal AI Summit Plug
What Is DDev
Stas Origin Story
Recent Releases and Priorities
DDev Share and Podman
Developer Experience Changes
Database Upgrade Pain Points
Coder DDev Cloud IDE
Cloud DDEV Basics
VS Code Remote Workflow
Pair Programming Training Wins
Docker Desktop Alternatives
Onboarding Teams Faster
Windows Support Reality
Building Through War
Roadmap Env File Fixes
Beyond Drupal Adoption
Addons Discovery Tools
Funding Community Health
AI Pull Requests Pressure
AI Agents MCP Plans
How To Get Involved
Resources
DDEV - https://ddev.com/
DDEV Add-on Registry - https://addons.ddev.com/
Introducing coder.ddev.com: DDEV in the Cloud - https://ddev.com/blog/coder-ddev-com-announcement/
About Stas Zhuk - https://ddev.com/blog/introducing-maintainer-stas/
Power Through Blackouts: How DDEV Community Helped Me in Ukraine - https://ddev.com/blog/power-through-blackouts-ddev-community-support/
Drush command in core - https://www.drupal.org/project/drupal/issues/3453474
Drush's Final Act - https://weitzman.github.io/blog/drush-final-act
coder.com - https://coder.com/
Service hosting coder.ddev.com - https://www.hetzner.com/
Funding DDEV - https://ddev.com/blog/sustainability-for-ddev/
Gen AI DDEV newsletter note - https://ddev.com/blog/ddev-march-2026-newsletter/
Sharing Coder.ddev.com workspaces - https://github.com/ddev/coder-ddev/issues/80
Guests
Stas Zhuk - stasadev
Randy Fay - ddev.com rfay
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Rod Martin - DrupalHelps.com imrodmartin
Module of the Week
with Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
DDEV Drupal Contrib - DDEV integration for developing Drupal contrib projects. As a general philosophy, your contributed module/theme is the center of the universe.

In episode 548 we welcome back JD Leonard to discuss what CRMs are, what problems they solve, and which organizations benefit from them. JD explains why Drupal CRM defines CRM as "Contact Relationship Management," outlines core expectations like contact and relationship tracking and integrations, and describes Drupal CRM's Drupal-native architecture using dedicated, fieldable entity types for contacts, relationships, and contact methods. The panel compares Drupal CRM to older Drupal CRM efforts and user-based approaches, covers security considerations for PII and plans for field encryption, and highlights ecosystem projects such as CRM Email, CRM Membership (including Drupal Commerce integration), and event registration needs.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/548
Topics
Module of the Week: Module of the Week: Social Media Links Block and Fields
Use Cases and Discussion
How to Suggest Modules
What Is a CRM
CRM Hats and Naming
Core CRM Features and Users
Why Drupal CRM Exists
Drupal CRM Architecture Deep Dive
Demos and Legacy Alternatives
Project Origins and Community
Out of the Box Features
Security and PII Considerations
Field Encryption Limits
Core First Drupal Native
Search Deprecation Drupal 12
Choosing Contrib Integrations
Ecosystem Modules Upstream
Getting Started
Evaluating CRM Options
Common CRM Pitfalls
Community Sustainability Vision
Funding Volunteers Sponsors
Roadmap Toward 1.0
Ecosystem Membership Events
Resources
Try the latest - https://drupal.org/project/crm
Field encrypt - https://www.drupal.org/project/crm/issues/3558040
Primary entity reference - https://www.drupal.org/project/primary_entity_reference
Member Platform initiative - https://www.drupal.org/project/member
Financial sponsor of Steve Ayers' time working on Drupal CRM - https://www.govwebworks.com https://www.portlandwebworks.com
CRM ecosystem modules - https://www.drupal.org/project/crm/ecosystem
Drupal Slack #crm channel: - https://drupal.slack.com/archives/C08N90UF9TR
Guests
JD Leonard - modernbizconsulting.com jdleonard
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Module of the Week
with Martin Anderson-Clutz
Social Media Links Block and Field
The modules provides a configurable block that display links (icons) to your profiles on various popular networking sites.
With this module, a website can be quickly extended with a "Follow us" functionality. Or you make the block available for your site editors, and they can configure the social networks themselves.

In episode #547, guest JD Flynn joins us to discuss why developers don't choose Drupal, focusing on Drupal adoption, discoverability, and outdated perceptions from Drupal 6/7. JD cites survey data showing low interest among non-Drupal developers, arguing Drupal's biggest problem is invisibility and that developers often pre-filter it due to PHP stigma and friction getting started.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/547
Topics
Welcome to Talking Drupal
Meet JD Flynn
Co Hosts Introductions
Module of the Week: Native Observability
Production Overhead Debate
AI Patches and Etiquette
Live Stream and Topic Setup
Why Developers Skip Drupal
Invisibility and Discovery
Perception and Onboarding Friction
Composer and Leaving the Island
Perception Gap and PHP Stigma
PHP Perception Versus Reality
Why Developers Avoid Drupal
Selling Drupal to Clients
Instant Demos With Drupal Forge
Discoverability in the AI Era
Content Strategy Beyond Drupal
PHP Stigma and Performance
Community Effort and Live Streaming
Marketing Drupal Out of the Box
Wrap Up and Where to Connect
Resources
Why Developers Don't Choose Drupal (And What We Can Do About It) - https://www.fldrupal.camp/session/why-developers-dont-choose-drupal-and-what-we-can-do-about-it
JD's stream - http://twitch.tv/jddoesdev
Drupal is Great! Its Perception Might Not be. -https://picozzi.com/notebook/2025/jan/drupal-great-its-perception-might-not-be
Drupal Forge - https://www.drupalforge.org/
Guests
JD Flynn - Crepdrop dorficus
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Rod Martin - DrupalHelps.com imrodmartin
Module of the Week
Correspondent
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Native Observability brings real observability into Drupal. Trace requests, inspect execution, analyze performance, and explore runtime behavior — directly inside your application.
No core patches. No external dependencies required to get started.
Just install, enable, and start seeing what actually happens inside your system.

Live from DrupalCon Chicago, Nic Laflin is joined by Tim Plunkett, Steve Wirt, Martin Anderson-Clutz, and John Picozzi to discuss the event's tone, Dries Notes and key themes including Drupal Canvas, Drupal AI, and new site templates/marketplace progress and more.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/546
 
Topics
Reconnecting With Community
Must See Sessions
Vibe And Starshot
Attendance And Venue
Community Party Returns
Dries Note and AI Debate
Roadmap And Templates
Recipes And Exports
AI In Engineering Workflows
Keynote Style Takeaways
Dries Note Takeaways
Canvas Content Templates
View Modes Roadmap
Translation Plans Explained
Gala Highlights
Commemorative Tokens
Future Excitement Roundtable
DrupalCon Orlando Tease
Wrap Up and Contacts
Guests
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Tim Plunkett - timplunkett
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
Steve Wirt - civicactions.com Swirt

Today we are talking about the open data platform DKAN, what it's used for, and how it applies to Drupal with guests Liz Tupper & Dan Feder. We'll also cover Modern Drupal Dashboard as our module of the week.
For show notes visit:
https://www.talkingDrupal.com/545
Topics
What Is DKAN
Who Uses Open Data
20:08 DKAN Origin Story
Why Drupal Fits DKAN
From Distribution to Module
DKAN 2 Rebuild and JSON Shift
Async Jobs and API First
How Teams Publish Data
What a Dataset Really Is
Metadata vs Data Access
Why DKAN Left Drupal Org
Migration Path to DKAN Four
Harvesting and Data Store ETL
APIs Visualizations and Bots
Roadmap Data Store and AI
Contributing and Where to File Issues
Resources
DKAN
DKAN Drupal Module
DKAN on GitHub
Public sites using DKAN 2
DKAN channel on Drupal Slack
JSON Form Widget
Guests
Liz Tupper - civicactions.com etupper
Dan Feder - getdkan.org dafeder
Hosts
Nic Laflin - nLighteneddevelopment.com nicxvan
John Picozzi - epam.com johnpicozzi
Steve Wirt - civicactions.com Swirt
MOTW
Correspondent
Martin Anderson-Clutz - mandclu.com mandclu
Brief description: Have you ever wanted to have your Drupal site admins start with a fast, widget-based interface that surfaces key site metrics, system health, and operational insights? There's a module for that.

Module name/project name: Modern Drupal Dashboard

Brief history How old: created in Feb 2026 by Gaurav Kapoor (gaurav.kapoor) of werk21 in Berlin
Versions available: 1.0.5, which works with Drupal core 10.3 and 11

Maintainership Actively maintained
Security coverage
Number of open issues: no open issues

Usage stats: 4 sites

Module features and usage With the module installed, site visitors with the new "Access modern dashboard" permission can access a React-based dashboard with widgets to provide insights on topics like:
Content overview: total content count, published vs unpublished, and per content type breakdown.
Users overview: user count per role (users with multiple roles are counted in each role), plus pie chart visualization.
Additional Content (Entity overview): lists all entity types (content + configuration), shows counts, and provides direct "Manage" links.
Modules overview: installed modules summary, including enabled/disabled and core/contrib breakdown.
System & status: key environment details such as Drupal core version, PHP version, and database information.
Health checks: displays Drupal requirement checks grouped by status (pass/warning/error) with a dedicated detail view.
Each widget can be clicked to open a detail view of the extended data, making it easy for admins to dig into any area
The widget-based architecture should also help to pull in data from other sources, potentially including things like analytics